


Light One Candle

by Azar



Category: Blood-Smoke Series - Tanya Huff
Genre: Chanukah, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-16
Updated: 2011-07-16
Packaged: 2017-10-21 10:51:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/224381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azar/pseuds/Azar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry receives an unexpected invitation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light One Candle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara/gifts).



> Disclaimer: They're Tanya Huff's, not mine, and it's been a while since I read the _Smoke_ books, so I apologize in advance of I got Zev or his and Henry's dynamic wrong. If I did, just consider this AU, especially since Henry in it is probably as much the TV!verse version as he is book!verse. *g* Spoilers through  Smoke and Ashes. Thanks to Medie for the uber-quick beta, and for not minding that I probably spoiled her silly in the process!  
> Written for Mara--Happy Chanukah!

> _Light one candle to bind us together  
>  With peace as the song in our heart_  
> \--Peter, Paul and Mary

Henry wasn't sure why he was so hesitant to reveal himself. It wasn't as though he'd never been here before; when Tony had briefly dated Darkest Night's music director, he'd made it his business to find out everything he could about the man. He wasn't ashamed to admit this had meant lurking outside this selfsame apartment on more than one occasion--Tony was one of his people, his responsibility, and nothing the younger man could say would ever convince him otherwise.

Still, he'd never actually been invited to Zev's home before.

He watched for a moment more as Zev carefully unpacked a beautiful gold menorah, then stepped out of the shadows into the light.

Zev looked up an instant later, only jumping a little when he saw the vampire standing in his living room. "Oh, hey. I was beginning to think you hadn't gotten my message."

The message in question had been on Henry's answering machine when he'd woken with the dying rays of the sun: _"Henry, it's Zev Sero, from_ Darkest Night _. Happy Chanukah! Yeah, I know, you don't celebrate, but still...if you're not doing anything tonight, why don't you swing by my place? We can light the first candle together."_

It had been such an unexpected thing that Henry had found himself here almost without realizing it, driven by curiosity. Even now, he had second thoughts--spending the evening with one of Tony's exes wasn't exactly something that ever seemed like a good idea--but that curiosity refused to remain unsatisfied.

"I got your message," he answered briefly, studying the other man. "Why did you invite me?"

Zev shrugged with deliberate casualness. "What, can't a friend invite another friend over for the first night of Chanukah?"

"First of all, I never would have thought to describe us as friends," Henry answered with brutal honesty. "And secondly...you do remember that I'm not only Catholic, but the son of a man who wasn't exactly a friend to your people?"

Sero looked mildly impressed. "So you're really his kid? Henry the Eighth? Does that mean you would've been king if you hadn't been..." He waved a vague hand to indicate Henry's current vampiric existence. "...you know?"

"I am his bastard, yes. As for my chances of sitting on the throne of England, there was some movement to have me declared my father's heir shortly prior to my death, but I had no aspirations to the throne." Okay, so that wasn't entirely true but the whole truth would be far too long in the telling and he was more interested in getting answers than giving them tonight. "You haven't answered my question."

Chester Bane's music director drew a box of candles out of a drawer and brought it over to the table, never quite meeting Henry's eyes, but not quite avoiding them either. "Chanukah is a time for family and friends. It's not so big a deal as your Christmas, but still...since I'm not able to spend it with my family this year, I invited a friend instead. Or acquaintance, if you prefer."

"Still, why me?" Henry asked, never taking his piercing eyes from the other man. "Why not Tony?"

"Tony has Lee," Zev answered simply. For the first time, he did look Henry right in the eyes. "I don't know that much about you, granted, but I did have reason to suspect that means you have no one."

The astuteness of that statement pierced Henry like a dagger sharp enough to kill him if he had still been mortal. It was something he tried not to let Tony see--the young man deserved the life he'd made for himself and Henry wouldn't interfere with that without being asked--but the loneliness he always carried had gotten more acute since Tony had entered into a relationship with Lee Nicholas, the man he'd fallen in love with almost at first sight. Just as it had gotten worse when he'd lost Vicki to Cellucci and to the territorial imperative that all vampires possessed, but at least then he'd still had Tony to mitigate it.

But now...he'd befriended more than one of Tony's colleagues on Darkest Night, but in the truest sense...Zev was right. He had no one.

"It's not your holiday, I know," the music director admitted. "But I can't give you that. I can give you this."

A slow smile curved the edges of Henry's lips. He began to understand a little Tony's regret that he hadn't been able to give Zev as much of his heart as he deserved. This was a good man, and if he let him, could be a good friend as well. And after four hundred years, Henry knew that a good friend was never something one should turn down an opportunity to acquire.

"In that case," he declared, stepping further into the apartment. "I would be honored to join you tonight."


End file.
